February 8.—A skirmish occurred on Linn Creek, Logan County, Va., to-day. Captain Smith, of the Fifth Virginia regiment, with twenty-one men, surprised a squad of Jenkins’s cavalry— thirty-two in number — killing eight, wounding seven, and taking the remainder prisoners, with thirty-two horses. The loss on the Union side was one killed and one wounded. Among the rebels killed was Stevens, one of the party who murdered three of Piatt’s Zouaves in such a shocking manner.—Louisville Journal, Feb. 15.
—Roanoke Island, N. C, with all its defences, was captured to-day by the combined military and naval forces of the United States, under General Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough.
The expedition entered Roanoke Inlet yesterday morning; and, soon afterwards, it entered Croatan Sound, on the western front of Roanoke Island. The enemy’s gunboats occupied a position close in-shore under the guns of two heavy works, named respectively Forts Bartow and Blanchard; and at eleven o’clock the fire was opened between them and the flag-ship of the Union squadron, (the Southfield,) and as the opposing forces more nearly approached each other, the fire became more rapid.
The enemy having obstructed the channel of Croatan Sound by an ingenious arrangement of piles extending nearly from the main-land to the island, the enemy’s gunboats, soon afterwards, fell back with the evident intent to draw the Union squadron into confusion within range of the guns of Fort Blanchard. In this, however, the enemy was not successful, and the guns of the squadron were turned on the fort with marked effect, setting fire to the barracks, etc., which burned with great fury during the remainder of the day.
During the afternoon, the transports having come up, preparations were made to debark the troops; and at half-past three o’clock, covered by the gunboats, the Fifty-first New-York, the Twenty-first and Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, the Tenth Connecticut, Fourth and Fifth Rhode Island, and Fifty-first Pennsylvania regiments, and Companies E and K of the Ninth New-Jersey were landed at Ashly’s Harbor, about two miles below Fort Bartow, and waded through mud knee-deep to Colonel Ashly’s house, and bivouacked. The landing was guarded by one third of the disposable force of the enemy, under Colonel Jordan of North-Carolina, but the fire of the covering gunboats drove it from its position without resistance.
During the afternoon the enemy’s gunboats renewed the action with the Union squadron, and a brisk engagement ensued, terminating, for the day, with the loss of the Curlew, the enemy’s largest steamer, and of the Forrest, one of his propellers, which was disabled.
At about six o’clock, after having thrown about fifteen hundred missiles of various kinds into the enemy’s squadron and battery, the fire ceased for the day, both parties preparing for a renewal of the action.
This morning, at about nine o’clock, the action between the Union gunboats and Fort Blanchard was renewed; but, after continuing about fifteen minutes, it ceased—other elements, meanwhile, having taken part in the struggle.
The approach to the enemy’s works was through a swampy wood, with dense undergrowth, rendering it almost impenetrable. Immediately in front of the first of the series of defences, a distance of three hundred yards, the trees had been felled, in order that no obstruction should prevent a proper use of the guns; and it was also defended with a ditch eight feet wide and three feet deep. It was flanked by the same impenetrable swamps which skirted the approach to it; and a heavy force of skirmishers on the left furnished an ample support.
Against this and the other defences of the island, at about half-past seven this morning, the troops were moved in three separate columns of attack. The centre, composed of a marine battery of six twelve-pounders, the Twenty-third, Twenty-fifth, and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts, and the Tenth Connecticut regiment, commanded by General Porter, moved up the narrow road, during which it encountered strong bodies of light troops, until it came in front of the enemy’s work, when its skirmishers were called in, and preparations were made for an assault.
The marine battery opened its fire on the enemy’s works, and continued it with great spirit until its ammunition had been expended, and the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, supported by the Tenth Connecticut, suffered very severely from the enemy’s fire.
In the mean time, the left flanking column, composed of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, the Fifty-first New-York, the Ninth New-Jersey, and the Fifty-first Pennsylvania regiments, commanded by General Reno; and the right flanking column, composed of the Fourth and Fifth Rhode-Island, and the Ninth New-York regiments hastened through the dense woods and swamps toward either flank of the enemy’s position, without attracting his attention.
A desperate attempt soon afterwards was made to turn the right flank of the central column of attack; and a very spirited encounter between parties from the Twenty-third and Twenty-seventh Massachusetts regiments and the Second Battalion of the Wise Legion, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Anderson, resulted in the utter repulse of the latter with heavy loss, including Captain Robert Coles, killed, and Capt. O. Jennings Wise, mortally wounded.
During this engagement the two flanking columns approached the works. That on the right (General Parke’s) passed the right of the central column, when the Ninth New-Yorkers (Hawkins’ Zouaves) were ordered to charge. Major Kimball headed the storming party, and with the peculiar cheer of the regiment, the men dashed forward.
Almost at the same moment, General Reno, commanding the left column of attack, ordered the Fifty-first New-Yorkers (Shepard Rifles) and the Twenty-first Massachusetts to charge the enemy on his right flank; and, almost at the same moment, the two storming parties appeared on the opposite flanks of the enemy’s position.
Without waiting for any nearer approach of the assailants, the enemy beat a precipitate retreat, casting off their knapsacks, haversacks, coats, etc., to facilitate their flight.
The Fifty-first New-Yorkers were the first to enter the works, when they planted the stars and stripes, and the Twenty-first Massachusetts and the Hawkins’ Zouaves immediately afterwards dashed through the ditch into the captured redoubt.
The three regiments which had taken the battery, immediately pushed forward in pursuit of the fugitives, and captured several prisoners— some of them, already in boats, pushing off from the shore in their flight from the island.
The Twenty-first Massachusetts regiment diverged from the line of the enemy’s retreat to attack an encampment of North-Carolinians, which was to the northward of the captured battery, when, after a slight resistance, the enemy surrendered unconditionally to General Reno.
A few minutes afterwards, the entire island, with all its defences, garrisons, etc., together with Fort Forrest, on the main, was surrendered to General Foster, and hostilities ceased.
About three thousand prisoners, six batteries or forts, mounting forty guns, upwards of three thousand stand of small arms, and immense quantities of military stores, were taken by the Union forces, with the loss of about thirty-five killed and two hundred wounded, among the former Colonel Russell of the Tenth Connecticut, and Lieutenant-Colonel de Monteil of the Zouaves. —(Doc. 30.)
